[Talk] Let's get the ball rolling!

There sure are a lot of new beginnings happening around here... Roleplay Theatre is getting spruced up, new roleplays are starting, and there's a new mod too it seems... that's me, hi everyone ♡♡♡

I figured I'd capitalize on the moment to ask you all, players and Game Masters... what's your favorite ways to kick off a new roleplay? What things cannot miss in your first posts or sessions? What's been your most memorable start to a roleplay, a campaign, an event? Let's chat!

To be completely honest, starting a RP off well is in many ways the hardest bit and I've yet to figure out the best recipe. I know what tends to work the very worst (in my experience) is instant multi-player joint posting. Very hard to get a flow going then.

Deliverance seems to be doing well so far but we haven't fully gotten going yet ofc haha, we're only just meeting up. I'm trying to make it easy to post and we communicate in a simple Discord chatgroup to ask who wants to post next, if something should change, if someone is busy etc. But I'm hopeful! I think seeing things moving and happening early on is generally a good idea to get players involved fast and making them feel that they are visible and impactful.

For the first post ever in any rp, I take the first post as a "character presentation" sort of thing that is not very long but tries to tell everyone what my character is doing there.

The one exception to this is Bruno, I think, but to be completely fair with myself, Trainers was my very first rp so I didn't really know much about writing things down or character portrayal, and in the end, I think I managed to portray Bruno's personality well enough in later chapters.

If I have to pick a favorite start here, it's definitely Carmen's first post. Mostly because of how her pov contrasted with that of the other characters' that had posted then. While the other characters were struggling keeping their cool from being in front of the crowd, while appreciating the ceremony that was put for them, Carmen walked in front of everyone, completely used to crowds, thinking the ceremony was dogshit, which I think is amazing.

Skywalker said:

To be completely honest, starting a RP off well is in many ways the hardest bit and I've yet to figure out the best recipe. I know what tends to work the very worst (in my experience) is instant multi-player joint posting. Very hard to get a flow going then.

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Not totally sure I agree with this one tbh. If it's a large cast, definitely solo intro posts are the way to go. For a smaller cast though, especially one that will be spending a lot of time functioning as a group, I think a JP is a pretty valid way to start things off. It helps set up a group dynamic from the beginning and can even help get newer RPers used to that method of doing things early on. But never with a large cast. Oof.

As for memorable first posts... hm. I don't think I've made many particularly memorable ones honestly. I think the closest one to that would be my Spear character's introduction. Similarly to Cube, this was largely because of contrast. Unlike the other cast members who had either very high-energy posts or characters who were eager for their journey, my post was quite literally just Catherine waiting for the train (and being rude to some kids) because she was not in any way interested in doing typical trainer things. I think my Atria introduction wasn't as memorable, but I feel like I did a good job of setting the tone for Prim's character at least so I'll mention that here too.

I've not done anything special for introductions to my own characters in D&D really. But I feel like as a DM I'm pretty good at running interesting opening segments/sessions for my players. I think the most memorable in recent memory was a party all waking up in the middle of a scorching desert with no idea how they got there, no memory of the last several weeks of their lives and no idea who the other party members were. Everyone was instantly suspicious of each other - helped by the fact that almost everyone in the party looked extremely shady - but had to stick together to try and start figuring stuff out. A bit of a different intro that was elevated immensely by the high quality RP done by my players.

I haven't role played any recently, but I used to do a lot more.

I think my favorite thing to do in a first post is an introduction to my character. I've had many before and I've liked a few of them. I like having single posts before JPs start so everyone can establish their character and how they are. I've been in a few RPs that has had massive beginning JPs and it doesn't always work out. But I do like them.... but hard when there is more than.... 3 or 4 people.

As for my favorites.... I've had three total that I can really remember and enjoyed writing.

My first one is from when I started Pokemon Academy on here. It was a long standing Roleplay that had a bunch of people, but quickly came to the end after I joined because people stopped posting. It had my character arriving at the island where the academy was. It introduced my character and his two pokemon and they were just playing around, then after he got off the ship, he got scolded by a janitor for not picking up paper.

My second... and I do not remember if this was the same RP or a different RP, since I reused characters when a role play failed, but it was my character on Route 1 or Route 2 in Unova during Autumn and he was a photographer. He was sneaking around the forest, taking picture of wild pokemon, he took a picture of a Patrat that was stretching on a boulder with the leaves falling around him. He was also somewhere around Mistralton City and took a picture of a group of Seviper and Zangoose about to fight, only to be stopped by a flock of Tranquill. I don't remember if that was the same RP or not.

And probably my most memorable of all time was when we did a Hoenn Contest based RP that was short and the only RP I've been apart of on here that has finished. It was around the time ORAS was announced and my character was using, I think, an Empoleon and Vanilluxe for practice on the beach south of Slateport City. I don't remember what I was doing, but I think I was coming up with combinations and had to use a lot of descriptive writing which I love when it comes to Pokemon based stuff.

gimmepie said:

I've not done anything special for introductions to my own characters in D&D really. But I feel like as a DM I'm pretty good at running interesting opening segments/sessions for my players. I think the most memorable in recent memory was a party all waking up in the middle of a scorching desert with no idea how they got there, no memory of the last several weeks of their lives and no idea who the other party members were. Everyone was instantly suspicious of each other - helped by the fact that almost everyone in the party looked extremely shady - but had to stick together to try and start figuring stuff out. A bit of a different intro that was elevated immensely by the high quality RP done by my players.

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I think an interesting opening scenario is really helpful for kicking things off and that's definitely a fun one! Jumping in with some Problems really makes people get going.

IcyIce said:

And probably my most memorable of all time was when we did a Hoenn Contest based RP that was short and the only RP I've been apart of on here that has finished. It was around the time ORAS was announced and my character was using, I think, an Empoleon and Vanilluxe for practice on the beach south of Slateport City. I don't remember what I was doing, but I think I was coming up with combinations and had to use a lot of descriptive writing which I love when it comes to Pokemon based stuff.

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I love reading contest stuff! If you could find that RP I'd be really interested in reading some of it :D

Haven't had too many of these moments myself but as a player, I'm really just hoping to throw my character into the fray in a way that can also highlight the traits I've added in the sign-up! That's really the goal.

And so Avril started out already asking herself if she was going to survive in Hoenn as a trainer, Arianne was just happily walking along and putting herself in danger (sorta), and... Charlotte was doing some photo bombing on a ship deck. That happened in Hoenn Square 1, Trainers and Together forever respectively!

Then again, one of the beginning moments I liked the most was that second person post in Final fantasy Alternate...
"You are Rayen."

Somehow, I made it work :3c

It really is important to me to give a solid impression of my character right off the bat. Attitude, behavior, appearance, thought process. I think everyone should like, know pretty well where my character is starting. I don't know if I always achieve that, and infodumping is definitely not the way to go so I avoid doing that. I usually avoid particularly introspective introductions and try to introduce my characters in the midst of some kind of small event so they can be seen moving around and doing stuff- but that may be a result of never really playing characters where introspection is the norm for them.

As for kicking off roleplays... I want people to have a goal right off the bat. As much as HS1 is an open world/sandbox type of game , I started everyone off in the prologue with a prompt of "talk to someone while on the ferry" and in Chapter 1 with "you do in fact have to register your license in this region, so do that". It's nice to not have to worry about the "what should I do?" when you're just starting out with a character whose motivations and behaviors you may not be quite in tune with yet. I'm sure different plots and styles would benefit from different approaches, though~

Aquacorde said:

As for kicking off roleplays... I want people to have a goal right off the bat. As much as HS1 is an open world/sandbox type of game , I started everyone off in the prologue with a prompt of "talk to someone while on the ferry" and in Chapter 1 with "you do in fact have to register your license in this region, so do that". It's nice to not have to worry about the "what should I do?" when you're just starting out with a character whose motivations and behaviors you may not be quite in tune with yet. I'm sure different plots and styles would benefit from different approaches, though~

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Ironic given the way my current RP functions, but I agree that having a goal from the start helps a lot since it gives writers a direction to go in. It's part of why mission mechanics are useful for early in an RP and typically become a little less utilised as character goals and the like a more established later on.